232 THE GINGERBREAD-BAKER'S SPEECH. William the Testy. He was looked up to with great reverence by the populace, who considered him a man of dark knowledge, seeing he was the first that imprinted new-year cakes with the mysterious hieroglyphics of the Cock and Breeches, and such like magical devices. This great burgomaster, who still chewed the eud of ill-will against the valiant Stuyvesant, in consequence of having been ignominiously kicked out of his cabinet at the time of his taking the reins of government-addressed the greasy multitude in what is called a patriotic speech, in which he informed them of the courteous summons to surrender of the governor's refusal to comply therewith-of his denying the public a sight of the summons, which, he had no doubt, contained conditions highly to the honour and advantage of the province. He then proceeded to speak of his excellency in high sounding terms, suitable to the dignity and grandeur of his station, comparing him to Nero, Caligula, and those other great men of yore, who are generally quoted by popular orators on similar occasions. Assuring the people, that the history of the world did not contain a despotic outrage to equal the present, for atrocity, cruelty, tyranny, and blood-thirstinessthat it would be recorded in letters of fire, on the blood-stained tablet of history! that ages HOW PETER TREATED THE MEMORIAL. 233 came to view it! would roll back with sudden horror when they That the womb of time-(by the way your orators and writers take strange liberties with the womb of time, though some would fain have us believe that time is an old gentleman) that the womb of time, pregnant as it was with direful horrors, would never produce a parallel enormity!-With a variety of other heart-rending, soul-stirring tropes and figures which I cannot enumerate-Neither, indeed, need I, for they were exactly the same that are used in all popular harangues and patriotic orations at the present day, and may be classed in rhetoric under the general title of RIGMAROLE. The speech of this inspired burgomaster being finished, the meeting fell into a kind of popular fermentation, which produced not only a string of right wise resolutions, but likewise a most resolute memorial, addressed to the governor, remonstrating at his conduct-which was no sooner handed to him, than he handed it into the fire; and thus deprived posterity of an invaluable document, that might have served as a precedent to the enlightened cobblers and tailors of the present day, in their sage intermeddlings with politics. 234 PETER'S WRATH AND RESOLUTION. CHAPTER VII. Containing a doleful disaster of Antony the Trumpeter-And how Peter Stuyvesant, like u second Gromwell, suddenly dissolved a rump Parliament. Now did the high-minded Pieter de Groodt shower down a pannier load of benedictions upon his burgomasters, for a set of self-willed, obstinate, headstrong varlets, who would neither be convinced nor persuaded; and determined thenceforth to have nothing more to do with them, but to consult merely the opinion of his privy counsellors, which he knew from experience to be the best in the world-inasmuch as it never differed from his own. Nor did he omit, now that his hand was in, to bestow some thousand left-handed compliments upon the sovereign people; whom he railed at for a herd of poltroons, who had no relish for the glorious hardships and illustrious misadventures of battle-but would rather stay at home, and eat and sleep in ignoble ease, than gain immortality and a broken head by valiantly fighting in a ditch. Resolutely bent, however, upon defending his MISSION OF VAN CORLEAR. 235 beloved city, in despite even of itself, he called Now there was nothing in all the world, the * A corruption of Top-paun; so called from a tribe of In- 236 HIS LUCKLESS FATE. -Alas! never more were they to be gladdened by the melody of their favourite trumpeter? It was a dark and stormy night when the good Antony arrived at the famous creek (sagely denominated Harlem river) which separates the island of Manna-hatta from the main land. The wind was righ, the elements were in an uproar, and no Charon could be found to ferry the adventurous sounder of brass across the water. For a short time he vapoured like an impatient ghost upon the brink, and then, bethinking himself of the urgency of his errand, took a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, swore most valorously that he would swim across, en spijt den Duyvel (in spite of the devil!) and daringly plunged into the stream.-Luckless Antony! scarce had he buffeted half way over, when he was observed to struggle violently, as if battling with the spirit of the waters-instinctively he put his trumpet to his mouth, and giving a vehement blast-sunk for ever to the bottom! The potent clangour of his trumpet, like the ivory horn of the renowned Paladin Orlando, when expiring in the glorious fields of Roncesvalles, rung far and wide through the country, alarming the neighbours round, who hurried in amazement to the spot-Here an old Dutch burgher, famed for his veracity, and who had been a witness of the fact, related to them the |